


All I See Is You And Me

by Terr



Series: Prompt Requests [5]
Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Bryce throws a fist in this one, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29105166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terr/pseuds/Terr
Summary: When people call Chiara names, Bryce does not hesitate to defend her.When Ethan finds out, he needs to thank him for it.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Series: Prompt Requests [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032390
Kudos: 9





	All I See Is You And Me

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: one thrown fist, some swearing, heavy kissing in the end  
> Set somewhere in the Book 3.   
> Prompt request: "I would rather be hurt and be with you than be okay without you" & "Shut up and kiss me"

Waiting for a lunch alone was so rare for Chiara these days, she didn’t know if she was enjoying it or finding it weird. Mostly, she shared those twenty minutes with Ethan, hidden from the prying eyes of the whole hospital behind the doors of his office. And when she was eating in the cafeteria, at least one of her friends was accompanying her.

But not today. Today, Ethan was busy with a board meeting and her friends were busy with patients and so there she was, standing in the line alone.

And the moment she heard those not at all silent whispers behind her, she was glad that there was nobody to hear them too.

“Oh, look, Ramsey’s little bitch, waiting for a lunch like normal people do.”

Chiara didn’t even turn around too see who was speaking – rumors were not something that surprised her at this point.

“He probably refused to pay for a fancy one today.”

Now, she was _truly_ thankful that nobody was here with her.

Just the image of Jackie turning on her heels to speak her mind made Chiara nervous – she hated drama and she hated it even more when she was part of it.

Except, somebody was there to overhear the remarks.

And it was when Chiara thanked for her sandwich and was about to find a free table that she heard the loud punch accompanied with a _crack_ , the sounds that could only mean that there has been an encounter between someone’s fist and somebody else’s nose.

She turned around swiftly, the horror in her eyes before she could even decipher what was going on.

Dating a man that doesn’t hesitate to throw fists came with certain kind of alarm.

Only it was not Ethan breathing heavily in front of the shocked intern.

It was Bryce.

Chiara blinked twice to make sure she was not seeing things, because-

_No, it couldn’t be._

_No way in hell would Bryce punch someone. Punch someone this hard._

Her Bryce. Her sweet Bryce, whose only weapon has been his charming smile and irresistible personality would never.

There was blood dripping from between the intern’s fingers and so it had to be.

It couldn’t. It made no sense. But apparently, it happened.

Chiara put her tray on the nearest table and in three quick steps closed the gap between her and Bryce, her mouth still agape.

“You broke my nose!” the intern winced, his hand covering the – judging by the sound it made – definitely broken nose.

“Oh, I did, didn’t I?” Bryce faked a gasp and even though the situation was serious, Chiara couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “It is such a pity there are no doctors around,” he added dramatically.

 _Bryce_ , Chiara whispered, putting her small hand on his tense arm.

“Somebody will hear about this,” the intern – _why don’t I remember his name?,_ Chiara thought – hissed and despite his hands still formed in fists, Bryce let out a wholehearted chuckle, ignoring Chiara’s desperate tugs on the sleeve of his white coat.

 _Let it be,_ she kept whispering, _let’s go, let’s get out of here._

“I am sure somebody should hear about it, Dr. –“ Bryce stopped and narrowed his eyes to read the name tag. “Dr. Solano.”

Chiara suddenly could remember him from the other day – he was exceptionally good at rounds. Now, she was not even angry with him, she was just disappointed that someone with such potential turned out to be an utter asshole.

He reminded her of someone from her own intern year.

“So, who should we take this to?” Bryce spoke again. “Chief Banerji, perhaps. I am sure he would love to hear that one of his interns called the woman who saved his life a little bitch. Or maybe,” he inhaled sharply. “We could take this directly to your boss, hm? You called her _Ramsey’s little bitch_ after all.”

Bryce’s tone was light, as if he was just keeping a friendly conversation, but his eyes were so cold it surprised even Chiara.

She has never seen him so angry.

Dr. Solano frowned, as if he considered actually talking to Ethan about the accident, but eventually turned around and left the cafeteria, followed by his two friends.

Only when they were left alone, Chiara noticed the attention this scene gave them, every single person looking at the pair confusedly.

“You didn’t have to do this,” Chiara muttered, taking a seat and grabbing her sandwich – only to have something to do with her hands.

Bryce took a seat next to her and she looked him in the eyes, expecting him to grin again, expecting to see mischievous sparks in his gaze. But there was nothing.

His eyes were still cold, his lips in a tight line, brows furrowed.

“Yes, I did,” he spoke at last, looking at his best friend for the first time. “Nobody is going to talk about you this way.”

Chiara chuckled to herself, biting her lip to stop herself from telling him that there are many talking about her that way.

“Thank you,” she gave him a half smile and offered him her sandwich – she suddenly didn’t feel hungry.

“Don’t mention it,” Bryce squeezed her hand and there it was, his bright grin plastered on his face again, eyes full of joy and life and the light Chiara loved so much. “It’s good to know that I still know how to punch.”

Chiara rolled her eyes again, a motion that became way too common for her around Bryce and grinned right back at him when he accepted the sandwich and took a bite.

“Speaking of mentioning,” she looked at him nervously. “Could you please not mention this to Ethan? What you heard?”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“He would kill them,” she added quickly, as if it was an explanation itself.

Bryce rolled his lips, as if he wanted to argue, but then nodded under the pressure of her pleading gaze and only murmured under his breath: “As he should.”

He knew, however, how the hospital rumors worked. He knew that he wouldn’t have to say a word for Ramsey to find out what happened.

*** *** ***

Chiara’s shift was over and there was not even a patient that would need to be monitored and yet, she didn’t want to leave hospital without seeing Ethan first.

He hated board meetings and he hated the way Bloom led the hospital and usually those days that he needed to attend the meetings his mood was extremely sour.

And so she was sitting on the couch in his office, mindlessly scrolling through her phone.

The door opened not so long after she texted Bryce yet another ‘thank you’, and Ethan’s expression was more than enough to indicate that his mood was beyond sour.

“Hi,” Chiara smiled softly and stood up to hug him. She didn’t ask about the meeting or about Leland, she just kept hugging him, waiting for Ethan to finally relax at least a little bit.

But Ethan couldn’t relax. He held her close, taking deep breaths, inhaling her scent and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to calm down.

He slumped down on the couch, taking Chiara with him so that she would sit in his lap – under no circumstances would he want her parted from him today.

“I guess the board meeting didn’t go that well,” Chiara spoke softly when she noticed that the deep frown was still present on his face.

“As it usually doesn’t,” he responded, leaning his forehead against Chiara’s shoulder.

There was a long silence and Chiara wondered, _does he know?_

Bryce promised her he wouldn’t say a word, but this behavior was strange, even for Ethan.

“I heard about the incident in the cafeteria today,” Ethan broke the silence at last, although he didn’t raise his head up.

_Oh, so he does know._

“Yeah,” Chiara nodded, doing her best - and she was a terrible, terrible liar – to act as if she only knew as little as him. As if she only knew that there was a fight in the cafeteria. “I didn’t know Bryce had it in him. He is not going to be in trouble, is he?”

Ethan finally looked up at her at that, his eyes so intense that Chiara had to avert her gaze, because _he knows, fuck, he knows and he is searching me, he is waiting for me to tell him the whole truth._

_He knows._

“Probably not,” Ethan replied after a tense while of silence and Chiara’s cheeks were already flushed by the force he kept looking straight into her.

Chiara simply nodded and for a second, she let herself be naïve enough to believe that Ethan would leave it be.

But no, he was simply giving her a chance to tell him what happened.

“I also heard about the reason he punched the asshole in the first place.”

_Ah… well._

_Well, well, well._

_There goes my hope._

“Did Bryce tell you?”

“He didn’t need to,” Ethan scoffed. “We are in a hospital, Rookie. It happened in the middle of cafeteria. It’s people’s job to spread rumors.”

Chiara’s shoulders slumped at that, because Ethan didn’t need to say more for her to understand that the whole hospital knows at this point.

“I already called him to say thank you,” Ethan said, his eyes still hard and angry. However, his hand put a lock of Chiara’s wild hair behind her ear with such gentleness it surprised her. “He spared me the obligation to do it myself.”

“Oh, c’mon Ethan,” Chiara sighed.

When she looked at Ethan again, it startled her to see him looking guilty. Not angry anymore, not exhausted or grumpy.

He looked guilty and lost.

And truly, when he spoke again, Chiara’s concerns turned to be right.

“This is what I was talking about all the time,” he whispered, and the sound of those whispers made Chiara’s heart tighten in her chest. He sounded so broken.

“People think that you slept your way here, they talk about you being a gold-digger, they-“

Shaking her head lightly, Chiara put a finger on Ethan’s lips, stopping him from saying anything else.

“I don’t care what they say, Ethan. Let them talk, for all I care.”

She was serious and sincere. She did not care. She knew she earned everything she had, she knew that she was a great doctor, her patients knew that too and people who mattered knew just as much.

Why would she dwell on rumors? What good would that bring?

Her words didn’t seem to soothe Ethan, however.

“How can you be so calm, Chiara?” he exclaimed. He was furious. “Those people are hurting you! The words they say are hurting you.”

She smiled at him with that sweet, affectionate smile she only saved for him, he knew and his rage was gone at the moment, because how could he stay angry with her when she was smiling like that?

“Nothing they say can hurt me. And even if it would **, I would rather be hurt and be with you than be okay without you.”**

There was so much devoutness in her words, so much _love_ , it made Ethan’s knees weak.

And with that, his feelings of guilt returned.

He was putting her through hell and she deserved all of heavens.

“I just… I want you to be happy. You deserve so much more than such behavior and I… I just-“

Ethan couldn’t finish his sentence because he was not sure what else was there to say.

“Not this again, Ethan. I refuse to discuss this whole ‘you could have more’ and ‘it is my fault that people talk about you’ and ‘if only I could be stronger and stay away from you’ shit. People can be cruel and if they wanted to talk about me, they would find their reason, with or without you being part of it.”

Ethan didn’t seem convinced at all, furrowing his brows tighter, as if coming with an argument why he was right and she was wrong.

“Oh, just **shut up and kiss me** ,” Chiara poked him with her elbow and he had to smile at the way she asked him to shut up without him saying a single word.

He was more than happy to oblige.

One of his hand gripping her thigh and the other stroking the back of her neck softly, he pulled her closer to do as she asked.

Their lips met and to this day it was a mystery for Ethan, a mystery he was happy to keep solving, _how did she manage to do that to him?_

How did she achieve _so much_ with something as simple as brushing his lips with her own so, so slightly?

The tension left his body as the kiss deepened and it was the moment she bit his lower lip softly that he forgot about the board meeting.

And it was the moment she tugged his hair at the nape of his neck that he forgot about the interns.

His hand gripped her thigh harder and it was the moment she moaned into his mouth that he forgot that they were still at the hospital and their behavior was less than appropriate. 

It was the moment she moved her lips lower to suck on his neck that he decided he couldn’t care less.

All he could see was her.


End file.
